Woman, 72, says Delta removed her from plane because she looked ill

This Oct. 30, 2013 photo released by the State of Alaska Central Region Department of Transportation & Public Facilities shows a Delta Airlines plane on a runway, at right, in Cold Bay, Alaska.
(AP Photo/State of Alaska Central Region Department, Jeff Doerning)

An elderly woman says a Delta crew treated her "like I had leprosy" when they removed her from a flight earlier this month … for looking sick.

Suzanne Hays, 72, tells First Coast News she felt fine as she waited for her flight to Florida to take off on Aug. 5. But a passenger sitting next to her thought otherwise and told the crew she looked "tired and drowsy." Hays is naturally pale and has a neurological disorder, she explains.

But the crew thought she might be contagious, and asked her to leave the plane. "Contagious with what?" she says. The crew threatened her with a police escort, she says: "I was begging them not to throw me off the plane ... I started crying and crying." To ease the sting, the airline gave Hays a $20 voucher for tea and soup, she says.

Then she spent a further hour and a half in the airport before she was put on another Delta flight. A Delta spokesman says the airline is investigating the incident.